1. Field of the Invention
The object of the present invention is a picture taking assembly for copier apparatus or copiers. It applies to all types of copiers in which the image of the original document is transferred onto a support that can be either the support of the copy (a photosensitive paper, for example), or an intermediary support (a photoreceptor in electrostatic copy, for example). Furthermore, it applies in all cases where the line by line reading of an original document results in the line by line reception on the said receptor support.
The term "line" is in the present specification to be considered as the geometric term and not with the meaning of a written or printed line of text.
The aim of the present invention is to produce a simple, compact and inexpensive picture taking assembly, while presenting good reliability and flexibility of utilization. Furthermore, the aim of said invention, while being oriented towards the reproduction of original documents in single, detached sheets, is to allow an easy adaptation to other forms of original documents, especially original documents of assembled, or even bound sheets.
2. Summary of the prior art
The prior art discloses numerous picture taking assemblies for copiers in which, either the original document is fixed and the optics is displaced to ensure the sweeping, or the original document is displaced and the optics remains fixed, the support receiving the image being most frequently movable.
The present invention does not include cases of photography or equivalent where the image of the original document is transferred in its entirety and not line by line.
The present invention can be applied in the line by line copy of an original document in translation movement with a line by line receptor on a support which (as has been described herein above) can be intermediary or ultimate.
The drawback of systems with objectives according to the prior art becomes apparent from the large space required for the length of the displacement between the objective and the original document, then between the objective and the image support, this length being in function of the focussing length of the objective, and of the dimensions of its pupils and the width of the lines, i.e. its field aperture.
Furthermore, an objective can contribute distorsions if it is not of a high quality. Therefore, copiers exist having objectives in which the luminous beam describes complicated paths due to the use of mirrors or reflecting prisms to limit the bulk of the assembly, thereby provoking instances of poor adjustment.
Furthermore, the majority of devices according to the prior art in which the original document is displaced by a translation movement utilize carriages having an alternate movement, thereby prohibiting a low retail price and especially preventing reduced space-consumption, the carriage being caused to project considerably at each of its travel ends, well beyond the length of the copier per se.